Theater Morphing Into Multi-Player Gaming Arena

J3zmund writes "This article highlights the attempt by ESports Arena to bring gaming to the masses. They're building what looks like a command center with gaming equipment, comfy chairs, and big screens to follow the action. For the price of a movie, patrons can frag to their hearts' content for 2 hours (extra time available, of course). This could sprawn some interesting events (once gaming goes beyond 'kill'). With The Sims ready to go online this month, it could open this up to a much larger audience than the "young males" they currently identify. How 'bout some Sim Rocky Horror Online Saturday nights..."

Comments

The cost of upgrading

[Gyorg_Lavode]

Gaming environments such as these will rely on having better and more hardware than home users have. How will this affect their business model when they have to upgrade their hardware every 6 months to be able to play the newest games? Also, will they be buying 20 to 30 licenses of every game that comes out that is heavily played? I am interested in the cost of sustaining such a complex focused at gaming.

Ugh, another thing I can't do....

[joel8x]

This sounds like it will be another case of Simulator Sickness on a grand scale for me. Anyone else who suffers from this knows that since the dawn of Doom, video gaming has been a nightmare for us. I used to play hours upon hours of video games when it was just nice side-scrolling or over-the-head aspects. Now after about 40 seconds of Unreal I'm ready to pass out. The majority of games that come out now that are worth anything are 3D, and I can only manage to play very few of them.

The Catch

[SmartGamer]

I'd observe that there's a little problem with this theory: a lot of people won't pay 1/5 the cost of a game just to play it for two hours with people they know. Perhaps for 2h. with people they don't- but then, that's what netplay is for.

A version which would be far more likely to be succesful would be where the games are exclusive to the "gamevie halls-" not released to the public yet, and it won't be until it goes out of the game theatres. (Sort of like movies that go to home video, as opposed to those released to video the day they go to the movie theatre. Which gets a better turnout?)

Re:The Catch

[ottffssent]

1. Spend $10.00 (plus tax) to go to a rennovated theatre and play a game that you already own at home for a limited time, but you're good at it and know you'll do great

2. Spend $10.00 (plus tax) to go to a rennovated theatre and play a game that is not availible through any other legal channel, knowing you've never played it before (unless you've gone before) and aren't sure what you're in for, so you might stink in public at something new

I think you're asking the wrong questions. Would you rather

1) spend $1000+ per year keeping your hardware top-notch or
2) spend $10 every now and then for a quick game?

The people asking this set of questions are the ones they're targeting.

Couldn't have picked a better place myself

[rmckeethen]

If this is going to succeed anywhere, San Diego's Gaslamp district is probably one of the better places to start. I live in San Diego, and I can tell you that the Pacific Theater is dead center of one of the biggest party zones outside of Los Angeles. Add that to the very high local population of 18 to 24-year olds from all the local colleges, universities and the Navy and Marine bases, and you've got what looks like a good chance of making a buck or two.

Personally, I wish them success. I wouldn't mind giving it a try myself. It will be interesting to see just what they've got set up come January.